Karter
Karter is given to both girls and boys: 256 girls and 1,265 boys were given it in 2025 (#989 among girls’ names and #270 among boys’, #446 among all names counting both); 34,052 Americans have been recorded with it since 1985 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 33,800 Americans named Karter and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 5 and 12.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karter by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karter mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Karter is “a male or female given name.”
Fanciful variant of Carter.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Karter?
#270 among boys’ names, 2025
Karter fell from #183 in 2015 to #270 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 1.2 to 0.74 per 1,000.
2,795 babies in 2019, the peak
Karter peaked in 2019, when 2,795 babies were given it (2,425 boys, #163 among boys’ names). The 1,521 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 54% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 256 | #989 | 1,265 | #270 |
| 2024 | 257 | #1,001 | 1,431 | #248 |
| 2023 | 303 | #889 | 1,597 | #225 |
| 2022 | 312 | #892 | 1,743 | #217 |
| 2021 | 319 | #861 | 1,919 | #201 |
| 2020 | 297 | #893 | 2,340 | #162 |
| 2019 | 370 | #759 | 2,425 | #163 |
| 2018 | 312 | #872 | 2,239 | #176 |
| 2017 | 351 | #783 | 2,286 | #174 |
| 2016 | 410 | #702 | 2,125 | #190 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 410 | #692 | 2,286 | #183 |
| 2014 | 274 | #973 | 2,117 | #194 |
| 2013 | 167 | #1,388 | 1,179 | #300 |
| 2012 | 132 | #1,636 | 886 | #349 |
| 2011 | 87 | #2,183 | 727 | #391 |
| 2010 | 94 | #2,106 | 604 | #443 |
| 2009 | 52 | #3,220 | 466 | #567 |
| 2008 | 23 | #6,029 | 362 | #669 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,303 | 268 | #801 |
| 2006 | 32 | #4,518 | 239 | #845 |
| 2005 | 10 | #10,513 | 202 | #894 |
| 2004 | 21 | #5,846 | 143 | #1,107 |
| 2003 | 16 | #7,045 | 139 | #1,106 |
| 2002 | 18 | #6,257 | 101 | #1,318 |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,532 | 102 | #1,291 |
| 2000 | 11 | #8,857 | 57 | #1,859 |
| 1999 | 12 | #7,959 | 42 | #2,215 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,260 | 31 | #2,678 |
| 1997 | 6 | #12,868 | 39 | #2,210 |
| 1996 | under 5 | 26 | #2,869 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 19 | #3,489 | |
| 1994 | under 5 | 12 | #4,956 | |
| 1993 | under 5 | 14 | #4,350 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 15 | #4,011 | |
| 1991 | under 5 | 5 | #8,880 | |
| 1990 | under 5 | 9 | #5,593 | |
| 1985 | under 5 | 5 | #7,068 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Karter a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 34,052 Americans recorded as Karter, 13% are girls and 87% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Karter: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karter, and how old are they?
33,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 34,052 Americans ever recorded as Karter. The median Karter alive today is 8 years old; half are between 5 and 12.
The 2020 Census counted 17,795 people named Karter (2,358 women and girls, 15,437 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 22,508 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 101 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 28,800 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Karter born?
The states with the most babies named Karter are Texas, Georgia and Florida, with 26% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 163 | #300 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 109 | #119 | 1.9× |
| Florida | 105 | #235 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 85 | #174 | 1.4× |
| California | 76 | #512 | 0.3× |
| Ohio | 68 | #224 | 1.2× |
| Louisiana | 66 | #78 | 2.5× |
| New York | 50 | #355 | 0.7× |
| Tennessee | 48 | #215 | 1.2× |
| Alabama | 47 | #136 | 2.0× |
Where Karter is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karter is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1985 it was given 2.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Karter with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 256,254 babies since 1880, Karter is the second most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,521 of their 8,620 babies (18%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Karter
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Karter and names like it
- Compare Karter and CarterBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKarter peaked in 2019.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karter since 1910.
- The top names of 2019The year the most babies were named Karter.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Karter alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.